ACLU launches virtual postcard initiative to support separated families

No Valentine this year? Or maybe you have love to spare? Use some of it to help separated families on the border via the American Civil Liberties Union's "All You Need Is Love and Family" campaign.

The ACLU launched the virtual Valentine campaign on Thursday, ahead of the February holiday. It urges social media users to share virtual postcards directly with President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden on Twitter. The digital "Valentines" — which read "Roses are red. Violets are blue. Families belong together, you know it's true" — call on the Biden administration to continue and expand its reunification promises.

In a press release on Thursday, Madhuri Grewal, ACLU federal immigration policy counsel, described the campaign as another way for parents to engage with and educate their children about the politics of family separation.

"Many parents may be thinking about how they would react if they had to flee their country, finally reached a place where they thought they could find safety, and then had their children ripped out of their arms," Grewal wrote. "So to start this new year, we’ll use my kindergartner’s new writing skills, complemented by my toddler’s scribbles, to send a Valentine’s Day card to President Biden and First Lady Dr. Biden.”

According to the campaign's website, the ACLU is encouraging the Biden administration and the Family Reunification Task Force to commit to five actions:

1. Find and reunite all the families, and ensure they can live in the United States together, free from detention and deportation.

2. Provide immediate protections from deportation and support a pathway to citizenship for all separated families.

3. Establish resources and redress funds that includes coverage of trauma-informed mental health services.

4. Make systemic changes to end family separations forever.

5. Pursue investigations of and accountability for those responsible.

On Feb. 2, President Biden signed an executive action to create a family reunification task force headed by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. President Biden said the administration's focus is to "undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration that literally, not figuratively, ripped children from the arms of their families at the border," the Washington Post reported.

The ACLU's campaign urges the administration to commit further, and promise "citizenship, resources, and care, along with a commitment that family separation will never happen again."

With the Valentine project, the ACLU hopes to keep Biden's promises to these families at the front of national attention. "We know the harm to separated children can be permanent. But our government did this, with our taxpayer dollars, and we must begin to make amends," Grewal said.

You can download a printable PDF version of the Valentine here.

Also consider signing the ACLU's online petition to provide relief to separated families, or donating to the organization's advocacy work.